Summary

The polycystic ovary syndrome (POS) affects nearly 10% of the women in reproductive age. Hyperandrogenism is one of the heralds of POS but needs to be differentiated of other disturbances, e.g. congenital adrenal hyperplasia. In spite of being considered as protean in diagnosis, hirsutismo as symptom it is relatively subjective. The great variability of the androgen blood concentrations may bring fallacies in diagnosis. Hyperandrogenism depends actually of the interaction of some factors that gives the polymorphism present in POS: insulin resistance responsible for hyperinsulinemia, elevation of LH that can originate hyperandrogenemia, excessive follicular population that seems to explain the good results of the ovarian surgery and the greater production of adrenal androgens. The interaction of these factors determines the symptoms of POS and is the reason of the importance of the st